Well after being a proud owner of a Nexstar 8se... I loved it every second of it!! Even though I had it for about 3 years. I only used it for about a year till I was deployed to afghanistan! I was wounded overseas, after an IED went off and a firefight injuried me. Now that I have finally been released from the hospital. I took out my telescope, I did some viewing, I did some astrophotography with my Nikon D300... got some beautiful shots, but I needed more. So today was the day!!! I drove 4.5 hours to meet with a seller of a Nexstar CGEM 800 EDGE HD!!! I fell in love seeing this beauty sitting there, waiting to be used properly. This gentlemen stated he didnt know how to use it. It was sitting in his basement for the past few months. Well I am ready to put this together and do some awesome astrophotography! Of course I am now selling my Nexstar 8se, so I can pay my bills lol. So ill be doing my research and learning every secret about this beautiful telescope!